Malaysia and Singapore are battling it out over their maritime and air borders, in words and Facebook videos for now. The old new Malaysian prime minister seems keen to restart the beef he’s always had towards Singapore.

The world has nothing on South Korea when it comes to beauty product branding. I was already pushed towards Carlsberg and Ashai hand creams in a Seoul sports bar. Now moist face masks have arrived to relax tense skin - branded with the image of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Hungary has forced out a university. It’s easy to find examples of academic suppression from countries like China and Vietnam that have been ruled by autocrats for longer than a few years. Now those headlines have come to the European Union. If they stick, Europe is taking a turn for the worse.

China’s state media got themselves a piece published in the New York Times, praising China’s leader Xi Jinping. Or that’s what it looks like if you don’t dig slightly deeper. I did. Here’s a post filled with screenshots.

North and South Korea just got the go ahead from the UN to study whether they could hook up their rail systems. A while back I visited Dorasan Station, close to the border in South Korea. It doesn’t see much traffic yet, but is equipped and ready to whisk train passengers from Pyeongyang to Seoul and back.

No one can be expected to have gone through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai and recall every detail. It’s haunted house meets 1970s Star Trek meets 1990s dance rave. It’s fantastic, absurd and disturbing.

Corippo, a mountain hamlet with a history going back 800 years, is Switzerland’s smallest town. Of the 12 residents, 7 are over 70 years old. As the population declines further, empty homes are being converted to hotel rooms.

On a Sunday at 14:39:50, flight UA835 just landed from Chicago. Flight 9C8590 from Osaka. Flight MU9711 from Mingyi. Flight SQ830 Singapore. HO1184 Shenyang, Y87512 Haikou, QR870 Doha. All spewed out passengers. All are now here.

The ghost casino of Campione d’Italia reminded me of a visit to the New South China Mall in Dongguan, north of Hong Kong. Standing in front of a huge building where absolutely nothing happens and no one else is around feeds curiosity.

Last week I ended up in a tiny Italian exclave in Switzerland. It has a casino that covers about 10% of the entire territory. That casino has gone bankrupt, leaving Campiano d’Italia without reason to exist.

Trash thrown out from higher floors of public housing estates is a recurring issue in Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. Last week, a teenager was hit in the head by a bicycle part. Earlier, another boy died when an office chair came falling down.